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Sunday, March 23 2008, 6:30pm - 9:00pm |
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Half Nelson 107 min
Director/Writer Ryan Fleck and Editor/Writer Anna Boden will attend the Q&A
 Half
Nelson is that rarest of marvels—an American fiction film that wears
its political heart on its sleeve. It’s a small film with a long view,
and its story hinges on an unusually nuanced relationship between a
white man and a black girl, each of whom has landed in harm’s way. The
delicacy of its lead performances (more on them later) and its sense of
everyday texture are each worthy of praise. But what makes “Half
Nelson” both an unusual and an exceptional American film, particularly
at a time when even films about Sept. 11 are professed to have no
politics, is its insistence on political consciousness as a moral
imperative. – The New York Times.
Ryan
and Anna’s first dramatic feature film, “Half Nelson” premiered at the
2006 Sundance Film Festival and went on to win numerous prizes,
including three Gotham Awards for Breakthrough Director, Actor, and
Best Feature Film. The
film also received two Independent Spirit Awards for its lead actors,
Ryan Gosling and Shareeka Epps, and an Academy Award nomination for
Best Actor. Ryan and Anna have also collaborated on several short films
and documentaries over the past six years, including: Have
You Seen This Man? (2002), Gowanus, Brooklyn (2004), and Young Rebels
(2005). They recently finished their second dramatic feature, "Sugar,"
which will premiere at the 2008 Sundance film festival. A native of
Berkeley, CA, Ryan is a graduate of NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts.
Anna received her degree from Columbia University and hails from the
Boston area.
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